The Assasin
by SkyrimCat
Summary: Adanji, a female khajiit from Windhelm, finds herself in the middle of an odd group of assassins with her argonian friend, Utadee. And after Utadee joins them, will she decide to join as well? Or will she walk away and forget about her best friend forever, and possibly be assassinated herself? -RATED FOR BLOOD AND GORE, MINOR ROMANCE-
1. Chapter 1

Thin mist engulfed my mind. All I saw was fog, obscuring my vision. My head throbbed repeatedly, what was happening? A voice. Unknown to me, unfamiliar. "Hey, you. Finally awake?" My eyes darted open, breathing heavily though it began to diminish. In front of me, hands bound was a blonde Nord. I blinked wide eyes and looked at my own hands, the ropes rubbing my wrists raw. I hissed under my breath before fearfully looking up.

"You were trying to cross the border, right?" I shuddered. I had been. But why was I here? That was roughly all I could remember right now... "Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there." My attention quickly turned to the brown haired Nord that looked rather angry. And though it was hidden well, I could smell his fear.

"Damn you Stormcloaks! Skyrim was fine until you came along!" He growled, bound hands trembling. "Empire was nice and lazy. If they hadn't been looking for you, I would've stolen that horse and been halfway to Hammerfell. You there," He looked right at me, a feeling of dread crept up to my shoulders. "you and me, we shouldn't be here. It's these Stormcloaks the empire wants."

"We're all brothers and sisters in binds now, thief." The blonde Nord frowned, his eyebrows furrowed. I sighed, still not uttering a word.

"Shut up back there!" The driver snapped, not even looking over his shoulders at us. I moved around a bit only to cause the ropes to dig deeper into my wrists. I coughed and bit back a tiny whimper of pain. They'd surely be infected when we reached the prison. Prison... I was in prison a lot. It wasn't really a big deal for me. I was a kleptomaniac, could never really help myself.

"What's his problem? The thief turned to look at the man sitting next to me. Fur coat, gagged mouth.

"Hey, watch your tongue! You're speaking to Ulfric Stormcloak, the true high king!" The blonde snapped angrily, glaring menacingly at the thief.

I instantly saw the thief's face turn as white as snow. And if mine could, it would've too. This wasn't prison they were taking us to. "Ulfric, the jarl of Windhelm... You're the leader of the rebellion, but if they've captured you- Oh Gods, where are they taking us?" He helped in terror, fidgeting around uncontrollably.

"I don't know where we're going," the blonde Nord sighed. "but Sovngarde awaits."

I'd never seen so much terror flash through someone's eyes in such a short amount of time. "No! This can't be happening, this isn't happening!"

"Hey, what village are you from, horse thief?" The blonde interrupted him softly.

"Why do you care?" The thief was shaking even more now. I found myself just... well, watching the show as we crept nearer to death.

"Because a Nord's last thoughts should be of home."

He was ready to protest, but instead he said, "Rorikstead. I'm, I'm from Rorikstead."

"General Tullius, sir! The headsman is waiting!" An Imperial soldier called, obviously female. My vision had just stopped wavering, and I could now see we were in a small town. "Good, let's get this over with." A man, General Tullius I assumed, replied gruffly.

As we approached our destination, I heard the horse thief mutter, "Shor, Mara, Dibella, Kynareth, Akatosh, Divines, please help me!"

The Stormcloak scoffed. "Look at him! General Tullius, the military governor. And it looks like the Thalmor are with him! Damn elves, I bet they had something to do with this." He looked around and sighed gently. "This is Helgen. I used to be sweet on a girl from here. I wonder if Vilad is still making that mead with juniper berries mixed in. Funny. When I was a boy, Imperial towers and walls made me feel so safe..." Now that was just depressing. As I shot the Nord a look of sympathy, I heard a young boy's voice say, "Who are they, daddy?"

"Go inside, little cub." A man replied, the boy's father I believe.

"Why? I wanted to watch the soldiers!"

"Inside the house, now!"

The boy sighed. "Yes, papa."

My vision trailed away from them and back to the Nord. And suddenly, my stomach lurched as the carriage stopped. "Why are we stopping?" The thief cried out. "Why do you think? End of the line. Come, let's go. Shouldn't keep the Gods waiting." The Nord sighed as he stood up, followed by the others, including me. "No, wait! We're not rebels!" The thief yelled in a desperate attempt to be freed. "Face your death with some courage, thief."

I could almost hear his heart hammering frantically. "You've got to tell them we weren't with you! This is a mistake!" He wailed as Ulfric jumped out of the carriage, followed by the terrified thief. A sad smile curved onto my lips and I nudged the thief in an effort to comfort him. He paid no attention.

"Step towards the block as we call your name." The female soldier huffed, a man next to her holding a list. I nodded respectfully to the Jarl of my home. He nodded slightly back at me before facing the Imperials. "One at a time!"

"Empire loves their damned lists." The Nord growled. "Ulfric Stormcloack, Jarl of Windhelm." The man called.

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric." He sighed next to me. "Ralof of Riverwood!" The Nord next to me, Ralof, headed towards the block. "Lokir of Rorikstead!" And in Lokir's terror stricken frenzy, he did the dumbest thing imaginable.

"No! I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!" He sprinted away before yelling gleefully, "you're not gonna kill me!" "Halt! Archers!" It all happened so fast. Lokir was shot in the back and the ankle, and before he hit the ground he was dead. I stared in horror. He shouldn't have done that.

"Anyone else feel like running?" She challenged darkly.

"Wait, you there." The list man pointed at me. "Who... are you?"


	2. Chapter 2

I raised my chin high and spoke for the first time since I'd arrived, with a feminine yet strong voice. "I am Adanji of Windhelm." He read through the list under his breath, and I nearly let a gasp escape when my large ears picked up a familiar name. They had Utadee here?! My argonian friend I had known since I was a mere child in the orphanage.  
>"Captain, she's not on the list! What should we do?" The captain scoffed. "Forget the list, she goes to the block!"<br>The list soldier stared at me with pity in his eyes. I glared back. "You picked a bad time to come back to Skyrim, Khajiit. But at least you'll die here, in your homeland." I didn't respond. Instead I followed the captain towards the block, my ears picking up on General Tullius growling, "Ulfric Stormcloak. Some here in Helgen call you a hero, but a hero wouldn't use a gift like the Voice to murder his king and claim the throne." At least, that's what I thought he said. As he was speaking, a loud roaring was heard. My highly sensitive ears automatically focused on it, rather than the conversation. My ears were still throbbing from the noise, and I witnessed a prisoner walk to the block with a defiant expression. He was shoved down, and just as I could hear properly again, he said, "I haven't got all morning!" Wait, he was... anticipating it? Hm. Strange... And then his head was lopped off. I bit back another fretful gasp as the roaring was heard again. I picked up a few words, like, "Next" and "Prisoner". Then I found myself walking to the block, dreading what came next. I was forced into my knees, and then my head was placed on the block. I didn't dare look into the box. Instead I stared at the Imperial captain and yelled bravely, "To Oblivion with you!" And then, as a smirk crossed my face, it vanished. A dark shape soared across the sky. Oh... My... gods... It landed and roared, and once again, I could barely hear. It shouted, fogging my vision and making my head spin. I didn't waste any time standing up and rumbling backwards. I wasn't too confused to see that this was a dragon. A dragon... but they didn't exist...  
>I backed up, right into Ralof, and managed to hear him yell about how we had to make our way into the Keep. Well, fine by me! I dashed after him, my head returning to it's normal state. As we slammed the door, I saw a dark green argonian crouched over a woman with a bloodied arm, wiping gently at it with a piece of cloth from his robes. My jaw dropped open and I rushed over, stitches in my side. "U-Utadee!" I gasped joyfully. He looked up and his amber eyes instantly became when dear than they already were. "Oh Talos, they have you here?!" Ralf put a hand on my shoulder. "A reunion is always nice, but we've got some dragon outside, and we need to get moving. Take your friend and let's move along. Utadee looked fretfully at the woman, who smiled and waved to the stairs. "Go ahead." She coughed. He was so caring, even towards strangers. It was just a trait he had always had. I smiled and he returned it with a toothy grin, running up the stairs after us. As we neared the top, a man was already up there, beckoning to us. Utadee gasped and threw his arms out, stopping us in our tracks directly as multiple stones when flying and the wall crumbled down on the man, the dragon's head forced inside. It opened it's large maw and let a huge gust of burning flames out, destroying the man's body. I whimpered and shakily leapt over the hot rocks when the Dragon pulled back. Utadee shuddered and rubbed at his wrists. They were bleeding heavily, and I wasn't surprised. To throw his arms out he had needed to break the ropes, and that would've required a lot of force. I lightly touched my mouth with my hands, but Ralof gently shoved us forward. "Jump! We'll look at those wounds later! We need to go!" Jump... of course.<br>I took a deep breath and made a leap of faith, followed closely by Utadee who let out an agonizing hiss when his hands broke his fall. I hated seeing him in pain. My furry hands jumped out to grab his scaly ones and I pulled him up. He grinned, baring his fangs and we continued down the burning building. It was chaos outside. A man shoved a child next to a house and said, "Take care of the boy!" We approached him quickly as the Dragon burnt another Imperial soldier to a crisp. He saw us and yelled, "Still alive, prisoners? Follow me if you want to stay like that!" We looked at eachother warily. We really had no choice. We dashed across the rough, burnt ground, and I found myself shoved up against a wall with Utadee's arm pressing me against it. I didn't understand why until I looked up to see a giant Dragon claw positioned an inch from my nose. If I were to straighten up, it would stab right into my head. It breathed a burst of fire, and as it did so, I gasped. It spoke! "The Elder Scroll did not defeat me!" I must have a concussion... Dragons... talking... Dragons were crazy enough, but a talking dragon?!  
>He flew off to a different house and I was released, and quickly running after the man. I had picked up his name as Hadvar. We ran as fast as our legs could handle. Utadee and I would be faster, but our legs were bruised and sore, and there was no way I'd be able to run barefoot on the burnt gravel at such a fast pace. And then, the Dragon shouted again, causing me to cry out as a large burst of pain entered my ears, I covered them, and Utadee put his arm around me, leading me forward. Ralof was yelling something to Hadvar, but I didn't know what. But soon, they were both at a different keep, beckoning us towards them. I looked up at Utadee, and we both darted for who we thought was the right choice. Hello, Imperial scumbags. Looks like we're here to stay. <div> 


End file.
